[ c a n a l i c u l i ]

[Crow'sia]

Gypsum,

Gypsum followed her gaze up the mountain, eyeing the dark rock. If he arched his neck far enough back, he could just make out the peaks of the mountain range, far beyond the valley. “Might be okay, they say it’s the snow that sound gets, don’t they? And there’s no snow,” he said over his shoulder. He’d only taken a few more steps when suddenly the sky cracked and Nagisa shrieked as if lightning had actually struck her.

“Are you alive! Are your legs broken!” he practically screamed at her, scurrying over to the log. Then she began to laugh. “Guess so!” He chuckled hesitantly, and gave her shoulder a nudge. When she fell back in step with him, the stallion stopped short, eyeing the trees with not a little malice. “You’re right. They’re dead, aren’t they. Well they’ll do.”

So he wandered in. Gypsum looked back for her occasionally, but otherwise had no reason to assume she wouldn’t follow. After all, she had agreed to come, hadn’t she? He kicked leaves into the air as he went, disappointed at they weren’t still clinging to their comrades in the air. When he saw a dark flash of green just a little ways off, he trumpeted his delight.

“Pine trees! They’re not bad! Bit low,” Gypsum said, rushing over to greet the pointed needles. The tang of pine filled his nose. He found it delicious. After tucking as much of himself into the little copse as he could, the stallion looked back at the sky. A rain drop pattered in his nose, the only part of him that he allow stretch out from the branches. Anyone wandering by would see a strange sight. As if a tree and a stallion had come together, forming a strange new creature, with spiky green protrusions.

Still, he questioned the tree. Not only did it itch, when he tried to shimmy further under, he found the branches shoved him back.

He looked for Nagisa. “Do you plan on staying on your own? Would you come down the mountain with me when I leave?”

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Ooc: No worries! I do it all ze time.

[« F u l é a o]

Her cry brought Gypsum running. The poor stallion thought she might have even killed herself, which made her laugh even more. "Don' worry, 'M still alive 'n' kicking." With his help she shakily got to her feet, following a little behind him. She caught herself watching the mottled shadows of the canopy glide over him. These began to disappear as the clouds rolled overhead, blocking the sun. Branches and their remnants of foliage rustled as the wind intensified.

The stallion was the first to break their silence. "Ah, yer a clever one! I dun fergot about those," she laughed, trotting over to join him. He was already cramming himself beneath the boughs, with limited success. Ducking her head, she promptly followed, as rain sprinkled against her coat, leaving darkened spots. This subjected her to quite a bit of poking and scratching, though the smell was absolutely wonderful. Again she snickered. They both looked hilarious.

As Gypsum spoke again, she turned toward him, and realized that the branch between her ears had tangled itself in her forelock. With the limb pressing on her, she had to look up at him. "Naw, naw, bein' on y'lonsome ain't no fun, an' it makes m'nervous. I'll prol...er, uh..." His last question wasn't one she could respond to right off. She wanted so bad to just answer, afraid her hesitation would give him the wrong impression. She wanted to go with him, really she did. The idea that everyone she met would eventually get tired of her was ridiculous, especially based off just one instance. She knew that. But there was the possibility that he was that type, and she was hesitant to throw herself at someone again. And what if he only meant he wanted to escort her back to the lowlands? She didn't want him stuck with her because she'd misunderstood him. Still, she could answer without hinting at either meaning. Finally, a shy smile crept across her face.

"I'd like that."

[Crow'sia]

Gypsum,

“You look like a tree,” Gypsum laughed. “But then so do I.”

Now that they were sheltered, although rain still dribbled down his back, Gypsum felt considerably better. Still, he wondered if after the showers he would be in any kind of position of sneaking away. Maybe if he ran fast enough she wouldn’t be able to follow, or wouldn’t care too. But he remembered the mission, remembered why he sent himself up the mountain to look for survivors. He couldn’t just leave her here. In fact he found he didn’t want to just leave her here. Wouldn’t it be nice, for once, to have someone to talk with who wasn’t insane and wasn’t a wolf? Gypsum felt a twist of guilt tear through his guts. Nonetheless he opened his big mouth.

As she stumbled over her answer, the stallion stretched out his neck and snapped the little branch holding her in his teeth. Its second half bounced up to thwack him in the face.

“Oh! Well that’s great! Great!” he cried. “Er, that you’d come along, I mean,” he added hesitantly. So that sealed it. How much could he tell this mare, without risking everything? Would she fear Triskelion? Did she expect him to have a heard back home down the mountain? He did have something of a family down there, but his wandering meant he never stayed long. There were worse things too. Of course, surely Nagisa would realize Nikolai was a far better option, as protection goes. Any mare would have to. Triskelion might not come into it at all. After all, who really knew about that? The filly on the beach? Well she was probably dead by now.

““And really, it’s probably just cold up here in the winter,” he said, giving her a nudge. That’s when he noticed the skin on his shoulder felt less tight, the fur a bit less mattered. He looked back in alarm. There on his shoulder, and further into the tree on the back of his legs, where unmistakeable spots of brown fur, as the layers of clay and earth began to trickle down his legs, or were scraped away by the tree.

“It seems my coat just washed away,” the stallion said nervously.

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OOC. =O Gypsum! The horse of wonders and secrets! XDD Like Rudolf, with slightly paint fur instead the glowy nose.

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Oblivious, of course, to his conflicting thoughts, she was quite satisfied with Gypsum's response. He seemed plenty enthusiastic about her acceptance, enough that he was embarrassed at how much he'd let on. She had to silence her own second thoughts, though; Romulus had been very fond of her at first...'Romulus, Romulus, Romulus,' she admonished mentally. 'Shut up and stop letting that guy ruin your life.' Poor thing had no way of knowing that he was having second thoughts.

Immediately, she took advantage of her new freedom to lift her head. "Thank ya...whoops!" she cried. Not only had the one end of the twig smacked her companion in the face, the other end stubbornly clung in her forelock, dangling between her eyes. With a little difficulty, she managed to shake it out, though needles remained. "Sheesh, temperamental li'l piece o' wood. Y'okay?"

The new ability to move her head freely allowed her to look back to see what had so preoccupied Gypsum. Sure enough, the elements had stripped away all the silt that had previously coated him, revealing faint brown blotches that were obviously not just stains. "How 'bout that! ‘Tain’t all dirt!" Her laugh was cut short when she realized he was embarrassed. This new information was surprising, yes, but not nearly as bad as he seemed to think it. "'S'matta'? Ain't nuthin' wrong wit' bein' painted."


o.o.c. - "He...he's got a spotted coat!"
"Spotted? I'd even say it's pinto!"

[Crow'sia]

Gypsum,

“Quite alright, quite alright,” the stallion laughed.

The rain going drip drip down the branches though, that was not something to be laughed at. No sense pressing deeper into the bushes, not when she’d already noticed. Gypsum shuffled, grasping frantically for any lie, any way out, when she spoke.

“Oh, but there is,” he hissed, more to himself, than to the mare. She laughed, found it amusing, he thought, like some strange eccentricity. A part of the stallion thrilled at this, because how marvellous it was for her assumptions and innocence here to remind him they were strangers, with no history. Perhaps, really, he was just insecure about his looks and that was the end of it. Gypsum’s eyes rounded on her, hard, blue. He had trouble deciding between emotions. He could just as easily scare her off as keep her if he didn’t keep himself in check, and he found he rather wanted to keep her. In a manner of speaking. But the cold malice that flashed through his eyes could easily be mistaken as malice towards her, and not others. Others who he so carefully hid his identity from. So he closed them, took a few slow breaths, and stepped from the tree as rain poured over his face.

Now would perhaps end the first little lie, that the stallion was afraid of water. It was true, rain and the ocean in particular still unnerved him. The dual horrors of the quake and the wave, so close after a storm, made the prospect of ever late summer a dreary one. But Gypsum had a knack for surviving and getting on with things. He shook the hair that had begun to plaster to his eyes. Perhaps he was being a tad melodramatic.

“Please, keep it to yourself?” he said carefully. He slouched a little, ears flopping front and back. “You’ll like the Fields, but they can’t know there. About me.”

Did that cover him, or implicate? Gypsum wasn’t sure. Either way (and it both surprised and sickened him to think this way), he knew a certain someone who could deal with such problems if they ever came up.

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OOC. The cuteness of it all. The ambiguity. O.o

[« F u l é a o]

Smile evaporating, she wilted under his gaze. His blue eyes had turned sharp and hateful, and poor Nagisa could only stare back, bewildered. She couldn't understand what could be so horribly embarrassing about one's coat color, unless there was some sort of weird stigma going on around here. She tried to stammer out an apology, but couldn't quite find her tongue. Deer in the headlights would describe her situation perfectly. Of course she never thought to put it that way, seeing as how she was unaware of the existence of automobiles.

And then Gypsum was leaving. Just stepped right out of their shelter, heedless of the rain he'd been so worried about. But then, maybe his real reason for avoiding the downpour was now void.

She felt awful. In all likelihood he was just being overly sensitive, or crazy. But for all her teasing she was pretty nonjudgmental by nature, and so she threw all the blame for this on herself. It didn’t matter if his dramatics were backed up by some sob story or not.

If nothing else, she didn't want this odd little incident to go unresolved for ever and anon. "I...I'm sorry..." She called after him in a small voice, not really expecting it to help.

He halted. Whether she had influenced that decision or not, she didn't know. When he finally spoke, his body language had softened. He wasn't going to storm out. In fact, it sounded as though the two would still be leaving the mountains together. Her answer came in a relieved gush. "Right, sure thing! If youse feelin' all insecure 'bout y'real coloring, ain't nobody gonna 'ear nuthin' 'bout it outta me." Desperate to kill the tension, she attempted to smile again. The results were a bit weak. "If it makes y'feel any better, I'm a freakin' rabicano."

[Crow'sia]

Gypsum,

Gypsum rounded on her so fast, that he didn't realize he'd hardly taken a step away from the tree. It struck him across the face with all the ferocity of a windy pine. He jumped back with a shout of surprise. Could a horse blush, Gypsum would have been scarlet. “Don't be sorry!” he began. And of course he offered her to come to the valley.

How apart from everything this mare was! The scheming, the lies, the ridiculous situation he'd put himself in. And all of it, he thought, destined to fail. But he couldn't betray Triskelion at this point. When Nagisa answered, Gypsum jumped forward and pressed his forehead against hers the way Gertrude liked to. It was a mare thing, maybe, he'd never really been well versed in these social practices (lol! Horse culture. Sorry. XD), but it seemed to calm the mares around Gertrude. He gave a happy little whine, mumbled sorry a few times, laughed at her joke. Things were salvageable.

“It's not so bad down there,” he said. The tension chewed at him, made his voice stiff and his tongue fumble. He felt more than a little stupid and more than a little sorry. It wasn't her fault, after all.

“I just- I'm bad, with speaking to others. Bit dumb, yes?” Gypsum laughed, then shook his fur, sending a spattering of rain everywhere, even as more dripped down his back. He felt a bit insane, feeling so much better already. Really, he blew things right out of proportion.

[/blockquote]

OOC: Your writing always makes me chuckle with glee. 'Never heard of automobiles.' Mmm. Humour. Not sure if we want to journey down ze mountain of doom when it comes to it, or pick up elsewhere, or other? =D

[« F u l é a o]

He came rushing back into the shelter, and the mare realized Gypsum's head was aimed at hers. There was no room to maneuver away from the impending head butt. She could only cringe as their faces touched, slow to realize that the contact had been gentle. Soon enough, her relieved laughter joined his. "Wha' yew doin' Gypsum?" She giggled.

Not that she was uncomfortable. A little surprised, yes, since their first real physical contact had come about rather suddenly, and it was a little odd, having his face jammed in her blind spot. But this was obviously a friendly gesture. That she was unfamiliar with said gesture was not surprising; the types she'd grown up with weren't usually the type to get touchy-feely. Reassured, she returned his gesture, lightly pressing against his forehead. All was forgiven between them; the tension had been successfully sent to its demise.

Nagisa smiled as her pearly companion babbled nervous apologies. "Dumb? Naw, don' worry 'bout it! Plenty good hosses is afraid o' talkin'. Other folks is scary sometimes, yeah?" In fact she knew exactly how he felt; she often experienced the same problem. Most people would never label her 'shy' though, since it had never affected how much she talked. "Don' got nuthin' t'worry 'bout, though. Y'don talk funny, or blab on and on a bunch, an' y'don' slobber or nuthin'."



o.o.c. - Hm...I'm not sure. Any preference on your part?

Also, thank you, lovely. Humor is da bomb. :::

[Crow'sia]

Gypsum,

Gypsum might have been listening a little too hard, since he realized quickly that the sounds of the forest had suddenly become quite loud when a moment before nothing but Nagisa's laughter seemed to exist. Now there was the rain, mostly, although the sounds of birds were most promising. Between the rocky peaks he could just make out the smallest of bright blue patches. Perhaps the storm would break soon.

“'Cept grass,” he said with a wink. "Slobber that sometimes."

Gypsum left the copse of trees, hoping he'd be able to better see the sky. Two patches of blue now. Water trickled into his eyes and he blinked it away. There was the pass they'd need to take down the mountain. Surely there were others, had Gypsum or Nagisa ever explored them. He certainly hadn't.

He craned his head around grinned a strange, horsey grin. "I can teach you to sing while we travel!

How could he have forgotten! Singing, after all, was the highest calling. Gypsum straightened his neck, and lifted his chin. "Tralala!" he chimed. "Well, try it!"

[/blockquote]

OOC: Hmm, pick up elsewhere mayhapsss? Fields, ahoy!

[« F u l é a o]

"That's why y' s'posta chew wit' y'mouth closed, idjit! Din' y'mama never teach ya no manners?" She called after him.

His words stirred up a flurry in her head, and not because of the bit about music. Upon arriving in these lands, Nagisa had resolved that this was where she was finally going to settle down, tired of her own cowardice. Enforcing that resolution was not so easy, but her plan was to head for the claiming grounds after allowing this little venture into the mountains. That was supposed to give her time to psych herself up, so the current situation had caught her a little unprepared.

A look back at her loner phase definitely helped. Nagisa had discovered that she was not fond of solitude; sometimes it made her downright miserable. Besides, this was different. Last time, she was agreeing to leave home for a stallion that was clouding her judgment with shameless wooing, expecting her to reciprocate undying love forever and whatnot. Gypsum was simply offering a home.

Fortunately these thoughts didn't waste time crossing Nagisa's mind, so her hesitation was minor. Grinning back, she extricated herself from the thicket. She winced as cold water assaulted her again, seeping in through her darkening coat. Thunder rumble overhead again, but she noted that the fussy in the sky seemed to be heading elsewhere.

"Right, uh…trala...tralala? No, no, wait." Carefully, the mare went over the pattern in her head a few times. This whole singing business was pretty odd. Gypsum could pull it off, largely because he knew what he was doing; Nagisa, on the other hand, had no practice and almost nothing to go on. She was quite convinced that there was no way she could make her voice trill beautifully like his, and as a result was feeling rather self-conscious. "T-tralala!" Her voice faltered less this time, and obviously strained to imitate Gypsum exactly. The result was decent, but bland. When Nagisa looked at her companion for feedback, it was obvious she wasn't expecting much.

What kind of a word was 'tralala', anyway?



o.o.c. - Aye, to the fields! -dramatic pointing-

Also, Nagisa probably sounds like a country singer. Lol.

[Crow'sia]

OOC: Country singing for the win. I love the twang the voices sometimes have. XD

I did a weird thing, but here we are:

nightskyequines.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=Lush&thread=2190&page=1

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